Where To Find Beauty
Plotinus (Egyptian philosopher) said that beauty has a specific function of leading us upward towards something greater. The true beauty can elevates our soul and reminds us that there is something beyond.
In plantonic philosophy, there is the idea that something truly beautiful does not arouse desire. True beauty has a metaphysical property that goes beyond the proportions of forms and cannot be satiated once consumed. This invites us to look for the essence of beauty, if it is not in the physical aesthetics, where is it?
Perhaps we can find beauty in the purity… In the genuine purity of a child or the purity of someone adult who already had contact with all the evil in the world and choose to be pure, someone who cleans up their past and decides to be better. The action of someone doing their best is extremely beautiful.
Because it’s a beauty by choice.
Perhaps we can find beauty in kindness, in selfless actions of helping someone without expecting anything in return. Like the sun, He doesn’t shines because he expects gratitude, he shines because he’s the sun.
Perhaps we can find beauty in the little things, and nature offers a feast of it all the time. Once a ray of sunlight came into my room and I thought: despite yesterday, someone gave me a blank piece of paper to start over and the sun distributed his light again without asking who deserves it. Generously for those who have their windows open to receive.
Every sunrise is a ritual of gratitude for life that begins again. If the sun doesn’t give up, why would I? Each of us radiates light in our own way.
Perhaps we can find beauty in the silence. Moments when it seems like all of nature has quieted down and a deep silence emerges, I like to call it “cathedral silence.” The kind of silence that goes inside us and we feel like the world has paused.
A ceremonial silence. Silence of great cathedrals… The silence is extremely beautiful, it is deep. It connects us with something that is eternal inside and outside of us.
Perhaps we can find beauty in the logic of nature… I look to the branches of a tree emerging from a trunk and wonder if I am learning this secret of expansion. I wonder, am I working on my ability to expand myself in all directions without losing my axis? Or am I betraying myself so I can expand?